Flashback Friday: The Most Bizarre Blue Jays Injuries

Over the years, it seems like the Baseball Gods have been overly cruel to the Toronto Blue Jays. If there was an unfortunate yet hilarious way for a Blue Jays player to be injured, it’s happened. The recent flurry of injuries in Spring Training just reinforced that suspicion.

There’s been some pretty bizarre injuries sustained by them over the years. And that’s one the ones that have documented; imagine the laundry list of weird and wacky ways players have hurt themselves which we’ve never even heard about.

So to the best of my knowledge, here are the ten most bizarre, strangest and most unorthodox ways that Blue Jays players have ever hurt themselves. Some of them may seem too weird to be true … but they are. You couldn’t make these tales up if you tried.

Glenallen Hill – Hurts Himself After Nightmare About Spiders

If you haven’t heard of Glenallen Hill’s claim to fame, it certainly was a bizarre one. The details are a little foggy, but rumour has it he had a bad dream at night which caused him to fall down stairs, crash through a glass table and suffer cuts and bruises.

That surely must’ve been an interesting story to tell the Blue Jays team trainer the following day.

Rickey Henderson – Frost Bite from Ice Pack

To most it might seem impossible to get frost bite in the middle of August, but Rickey Henderson did exactly that in 1993. He missed a few games after he left an ice pack on his leg too long.

Maicer Izturis – Falls Down Steps

Walking up and down stairs is something that all of us do every day, but in the case of Maicer Izturis, it was an innocent set of dugout stairs which ended his season.

Izturis tripped down the dugout stairs and tore his LCL in his left knee and was ruled out for the 2014 season. As a side note, three years into his contract, Maicer Izturis has played 113 games as a Blue Jay.

Paul Quantrill – Broken Leg on Snowmobile

How’s this for the quintessential Canadian injury? Paul Quantrill he broke his leg in a snowmobile accident in 1999. Quantrill initially reported it as a tobogganing accident, but later confessed he broke his leg on a snowmobile.

Ricky Romero, Kevin Pillar – Abdominal Strain by Sneezing

A simple sneeze; seems pretty harmless right? People sneeze dozens of time every day. The only difference is sometime people sneeze so hard that they actually hurt themselves. In the case of Romero, it actually landed him on the 15 day disabled list.

Kevin Pillar also suffered a similar fate earlier this season; an innocent sneeze sidelined him from Spring Training for about a week. At least Pillar had a sense of humour about it.

Colby Rasmus – Hit in Face with Baseball

As if the 2013 couldn’t get any worse, the cherry on the sundae of the disappointing campaign was an errant ball thrown by Anthony Gose that hit Colby Rasmus square in the face. Just further proving that it’s paramount to always, always keep your eye on the ball.

Brett Cecil – Cut By Knife

Protein is an athlete’s best friend. Knives however, are not. In 2010, Brett Cecil lacerated his thumb while simply trying to prepare a meal in what was described as a “kitchen-type accident”. Apparently he was trying to cut a chicken breast when the knife slipped.

Brett Cecil – Cut By Blender

It’s bad enough having sustained one kitchen-type accident, but can you imagine what it must feel like to suffer two in consecutive years? Brett Cecil had more bad luck in the kitchen in 2011 when he sliced open his fingers trying to clean a blender.

It Brett’s defense, those things are a pain to clean and often elicit a fear of suffering the same fate as Cecil. Once again … an unfortunate incident, but at least Brett Cecil can seek solace in the fact that his Baseball Prospectus player page actually has the injury specified.

Michael Saunders – Steps on Sprinkler Head, Tears Meniscus

This one is still fresh in most people’s minds, as the original prognosis on Michael Saunders is that he would initially be out until the All-Star break. Saunders was simply shagging fly balls at the Jays Spring Training complex when he jammed his knee.

The word is that Saunders stepped on a patch of grass close to a sprinkler head (although others say he stepped on the head itself). Either way, Michael Saunders’ injury was the definition of a freak injury as it required him to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Roberto Alomar – Cut Forehead Going to Bathroom

Out of all the aforementioned injuries, this one is perhaps the most bizarre and also one of the forgotten entries in this list. The Toronto Star has the story that truly has to be read to be believed:

“Alomar sliced open his head on a wire basket while answering a call of nature in the clubhouse washroom. He left the game two innings later and needed a stitch to close the wound. The only mention of the incident yesterday morning was a hand-drawn sign hanging over the washroom door that read: Hard Hat Area.”

Ian has been writing about the Toronto Blue Jays since 2007. He enjoyed the tail-end of the Roy Halladay era and vividly remembers the Alex Rodriguez “mine” incident. He’ll also retell the story of Game 5 of the ALDS to his kids for the next 20 years.

1 Comment

Anonymous

I think the most bizarre injury by far was to AJ Burnett, who closed a car door on his finger. He lost a nail, which was exactly the one he needed to throw his spike curve. For want of a finger nail, he was out of action until he could grow enough of a nail to have an artificial one attached.